Blog Administration

CarBootJunction Blog

Wednesday, March 25. 2015

If you have not heard of MLM (Multi Level Marketing) businesses yet (which would be odd these days), then here's a quick overview. Multi level marketing businesses retail products through a network of independent distributors, i.e. people like you and I. Most of us are familiar with organisations such as Betterware, Avon and Kleeneze, all of whom operate on this basis. Other well known brands which have built their businesses on this model include Utility Warehouse, Herbalife and Forever Living.

In this article I will not be reviewing all the different MLMs. While I have tried many myself, just because specific ones were not right for me does not mean they won't be a good fit for someone else. That said, I am going to tell you why being part of an MLM should be a fantastic business opportunity but very often it doesn't work out that way. I'm also going to make a recommendation based on my own experience and research as to which one is the best opportunity at this time and the many reasons why.

Thursday, June 20. 2013

Being a follower of the trend in the 80s, and with vacant land that drained really well, the Amazing Ardleigh Car Boot sale opened its gates to buyers and sellers 27 years ago and is still going strong. Sellers number in the hundreds with buyers in the thousands.

Particularly busy on Bank Holiday weekends, and when the sun is shining, there have been occasions when the field has been nearly full of sellers.

Having been open for so many years the Ardleigh Car Boot Sale is on good terms with the local authorities and even appear on their recycling page, although trouble was on the horizon when they advertised their website with daffodils (for which they made the national dailies!).

Over the years car boot sales have grown and become more popular; people love a bargain and the most unusual item that they have seen was a complete divers suit including helmet, lead filled boots and an hand operated pump.

The family run site, with its own dedicated team, have heard visitors to say that there is a fun, family atmosphere to the sale, helped by the great bargains that can be found. Also, because of the good drainage of the field they are always there - they are not put off by a bit of rain!

Advertising is through word of mouth, local newspapers, occasionally TV programmes and through their own website, and of course CarBootJunction. Further information can be found at HERE

Friday, May 24. 2013

This summer Car Boot Junction is supporting Malpasso in Rwanda, a project helping the widows and orphans of the Rwanda genocide. On July 15th Malpasso Consultancy in collaboration with Solace Ministries UK are taking a team of volunteers to the community of Nyamata, approximately 22 miles due south of Kigali (capital), in the district of Bugesera.

Once there they will spend nine days building two duplex houses, in addition to providing much needed support, aid and materials to the local school and community.

To learn more about this important and worthwhile cause click on the following links:

How can you help?
To support this project we are reaching out to our car boot friends and asking them to look on their stalls over the coming weekends and ask themselves if there is anything that can be donated. There may even be unsold items at the end of the weekend which would normally get skipped, but the widows and orphans in Rwanda would be extremely grateful for.malpasso in rwanda

All we ask is that you put some of these items to one side and arrange to get them to us. If you are in Dorset or South Hants we can arrange a collection. Outside of these areas all we ask is that you donate a little of your time to put the items in a suitable packet/box and take them to the post office, and then donate the cost of posting them to the following address:

Once received, the Car Boot Junction team will sort and inventory all the items and ensure they reach the central collection point in time for loading on to the Hercules. Please include your name and address so that we can thank you for your contribution.

NB All packages must be received by the 30th June 2013 to ensure we have time to get them documented, transported and loaded on to the Hercules.

Alternative ways to help
If you donÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t have any suitable items and/or wish to help in another way you can do so through the Buy a Brick scheme where you can buy a brick for Ã‚Â£10.00 which can be split many ways, so you can with your friends donate as little or as much as you like. To Buy A Brick click on the following link:

Tuesday, May 21. 2013

Located in Stonham Aspal, near Stowmarket, Suffolk, the Stonham Barns Covered and Uncovered provides a different car booting experience.

Open all year round on a Sunday morning (although not a really early start!) there are covered and uncovered stalls available. The newly covered stalls (price includes a table) even have a covered walkway so that buyers donÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t get wet whilst browsing. This addition can be removed on sunnier days, but the stalls can still stay covered.

With enough space to accommodate a large number of sellers there is no early queuing to get a pitch and the starting price is a reasonable Ã‚Â£5 per car (extra for vans and trailers unless using a covered stall when it is one fixed price).

There is a large footfall to the site, many from the nearby events such as Classic Car shows, equestrian events, etc. as well as from the regular shops that are also nearby include antiques, fabric and pets. There is also entertainment laid on to keep the kids amused.

Friday, May 10. 2013

ItÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s one of the great unsolved mysteries of life you know. Learned people have spent years and enormous sums in Government grants researching the phenomenon. Actually that last bit might not be exactly true but you can bet that some university, somewhere in the USA, will have such research in progress! What is this phenomenon, this unsolved mystery?

ItÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s clutter, or rather the speed with which clutter accumulates in human dwelling places. If mankind could only isolate the true cause of the phenomenon weÃ¢â‚¬â„¢d be on the way to discovering how to prevent it in the first place. As it is, all we can do is try to keep up with it by means of periodic clear-outs, which is where the car boot sale can help.

The phenomenon is not new by any means. IÃ¢â‚¬â„¢m quite old now and I canÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t remember a time when we didnÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t have clutter and IÃ¢â‚¬â„¢m sure it goes back very much farther than that. In fact I suspect the Romans of introducing it to these shores after 55BC. They would have arrived bringing chariot loads of clutter with them and before long it would have spread to the native population like a disease.

Have you noticed that when you move house you get rid of most of the clutter that has accumulated since your last move, but nine times out of ten you take with you some stuff that you havenÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t used in ages but canÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t bear to get rid of?

Therein lies the possible cause of the problem. It would have started when you first moved out from your parentsÃ¢â‚¬â„¢ home to live independently. Just one or two items that might come in handy one day, thatÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s all it takes and youÃ¢â‚¬â„¢re doomed! From then on, each time you move you do the same thing only the number of items grows each time. These are the seeds from which the next lot of clutter grows.

Of course, itÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s all very well saying that our own actions may be the possible cause of the phenomenon but finding the cause of the cause, thatÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s what baffles even modern science. It seems to be something in the human psyche and maybe one day, years and millions of pounds down the line scientists may find the answer, but donÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t hold your breath!

Meanwhile, the car boot sale is one the more recent additions to our armoury of weapons to combat the dreaded clutter and itÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s a very effective one when properly deployed. The car boot sale has a long and distinguished lineage as weÃ¢â‚¬â„¢ve explored before. I reckon those Romans probably held Chariot Sales up and down the country.

Whether they did or not, we now have the car boot sale to help us de-clutter our homes and we should use them to the full. What better way can there be to rid yourself of unused items than to sell them on to other people for money? Buying at car boot sales as well as selling may mean you end up with just as much clutter as you started with so be careful to buy only what you can actually use or to stock your car boot for the next sale when youÃ¢â‚¬â„¢ve sold all your original stuff.

In car boot sales have we finally found the answer to the clutter problem? Maybe, maybe not, maybe all weÃ¢â‚¬â„¢re doing is moving the clutter around to different people, spreading the disease as it were. But hey! Who cares anyway? ItÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s great fun doing it and doesnÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t actually harm anyone and it just might save someone from serious injury or worse. Remember the reports quite recently of the chap who was crushed in his bed by 25 years or more worth of yachting magazines stored in his loft when the ceiling collapsed under the weight.

The moral of that story surely is, donÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t let things like that keep accumulating until they bury you. Get them to a car boot sale in good time and make some money from them. You can always start collecting again!

Article provided by freelance copywriter, Pete Hopper of Write for You

Tuesday, April 23. 2013

Now over 25 years old, Ashley Heath Car Boot Sale (nr Ringwood in Dorset) is perhaps the best known car boot fair in the Poole/Bournemouth area and attracts an average of 300 sellers per week. It regularly sees between 2,000 and 3,000 enthusiastic buyers through its gates on a Sunday morning.

Originally started to diversify the farmÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s income it has seen a steady increase in buyers and sellers from all walks of life and now employs 12 people to assist with itÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s smooth running.

The operators say that their biggest challenge in running a car boot of this size is getting everyone on site on a busy day without causing disruption on the roadsÃ¢â‚¬Â¦.something many car boot operators can relate to.

Furthermore, being an entirely outdoor carboot, with little protection from the elements, their weekly success is rather weather dependent, leaving them wishing for nice weather for the weekends. Their busiest weekends tend to be in May and September but with the British weather being as it is these days it is becoming more and more unpredictable.

They advertise only in the local press and on CarBootJunction.com, as well as relying heavily on word of mouth. However, that word of mouth clearly works as the car boot sale community is usually quick to pass on information about professionally run car boot sales such as this.

So, if you are looking for a car boot sale on the edge of Dorset and not too far away from the New Forest then consider the Ashley Heath car boot sale. A well organised, flat and level site with good toilets, a large selection of sellers and buyers (the largest in the area), plenty of parking and good access and egress from the site.

Wednesday, March 13. 2013

This car boot sale runs alongside the private Sunday market and provides entertainment for all the family, with rides for the children and refreshments for all. It is the one-stop shop for all your needs, including meat, veg and baked goods.

Now in it's 14th year, operating on Sunday and Bank Holiday Mondays from 6.30am, it has expanded and now runs all year, but despite the extra expense this has incurred there has been no increase in pitch fees for the last 5 years! There is still no fee for buyers to park and enter.

With easy access from the M62 and M6, it can be found opposite B&Q on the A49.

Wednesday, February 20. 2013

At the Victorian Open Market, and part of a a larger market, the car boot is one of the longest established car boots in the North West, operating since the early 80s. Open on Tuesdays and Thursdays for car booters it proves that successful car boots are not just limited to weekends.

Unlike many operators they are a 52 week of the year operation and even the ravages of snow, rain and winds haven't stopped the Market operating. The event is held under a large canopy that not only provides good weather protection but during the summer months provides a very airy and well ventilated facility, where traders are found using deck chairs. Not bad for a market undercover!

They provide a variety of accommodation to suit different trader's needs, which includes large van spaces, car spaces and traditional tables only.

Located right in the heart of the City Centre they are also close to all the other amenities that punters require including banks, cash machines, cafes, a great food market, lots of parking and much much more.

Friday, November 16. 2012

Back in May we looked at the history of car boot sales from their beginnings in the early 1970s. It's true that that's when the car boot sale as we know it today first began to be a feature of life in the late 20th and early 21st Centuries but actually the roots go back much farther than that.

Markets were probably the earliest form of organised trading in communities all over the world. Well, sort of organised anyway. The council Markets Inspector with his clipboard came very much later! Markets probably existed before money so they would have been sites for bartering goods. John had more corn than his family needed but they wanted a cow. Oscar was a bit short of corn and his cows had had calves so a deal could be struck and so on. Maybe the story of Jack trading the family cow for a handful of beans dates from that time.

You can see where this is going can't you? Using surplus goods to buy stuff you needed. Money came into the picture and changed the way trading was carried out but didn't change that basic concept. Down through the ages most people who didn't become merchants didn't have much in the way of spare items to trade. Come the industrial revolution the new middle class began to have surplus goods that were no longer considered good enough to use themselves. Sometimes these might be given to the poor or their own servants. These might well have found their way into markets in poor areas.

Thursday, August 2. 2012

DoesnÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t seem to make sense does it? I mean, the whole point of a car boot sale is that youÃ¢â‚¬â„¢re selling stuff from the boot of a car isnÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t it? OK you might have stuff on a table behind the car being replenished from the boot as items are sold but the thing is, the car is there, the stuff is there and you are there for people to haggle with. ThatÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s what provides the fun element, that interaction between buyer and seller. That and getting your fingers and toes frozen on an English summerÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s day!

On the internet thereÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s no car, so no boot unless you happen to be selling footwear, no chilly seller and potential buyers canÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t handle the goods, so how can it be a car boot sale then? Well of course, truth be told, it isnÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t really but it is an extension of the car boot sale principle. You have stuff you donÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t want anymore that hopefully someone else will want at the right price, just like a car boot sale only itÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s online.

With so many of the car boot sale fun factors missing, will the online version ever catch on do you think? Actually itÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s too late to ask that now, it already has! eBay is the obvious example that springs to mind and what a success story that has been. ItÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s the one everyone thinks of first and it has become a standing joke that whenever someone is presented with some significant award some wag will comment that itÃ¢â‚¬â„¢ll be on eBay tomorrow!

In fact when, just now, I inadvertently typed the name as Ã¢â‚¬Å“Ebay,Ã¢â‚¬Â spellchecker immediately picked it up as an error. ThatÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s how well its name has become established as part of the language! But it doesnÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t stop at eBay. Try googling and by the way spellchecker doesnÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t even recognise that as a word yet, with or without a capital G, Ã¢â‚¬Å“Buy and sell online sitesÃ¢â‚¬Â, and you get pages of them.

Flippa .com, balooga, ioffer and baycrazy, are just a few that come up and weÃ¢â‚¬â„¢ve all been advised by the TV ads to Ã¢â‚¬Å“stick it on Gumtree havenÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t we? YouÃ¢â‚¬â„¢ll even get one site that offers to tell you what the top ten buy and sell sites are in The Philippines! Now thatÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s all great stuff but what has it to do with car boot sales? Only that, as previously mentioned, itÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s another opportunity to get rid of stuff you donÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t want in exchange for money or maybe for stuff you do want. The other side of that of course is that itÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s another source of potential bargains if youÃ¢â‚¬â„¢re buying.

What is most interesting is the fact that despite all this being available from your armchair, the popularity of real live car boot sales continues to grow. It seems thereÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s no substitute for the good old outdoor in all weathers genuine car boot sale! Certainly thatÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s the case in Britain but then we are British. We actually love getting wet and cold and having a good old moan about the weather, itÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s part of our psyche!

Friday, June 22. 2012

Since Father Clarke brought the idea of car boot sales to these shores from Canada way back in the 1970s the movement has spread not only over the whole of Great Britain and Ireland but far beyond. Whether the spread has been from this country or whether the idea was already catching on in other countries at the same time as it came here is unclear. It probably doesn't matter anyway the important thing is that it has happened!

What we call car boot sales go under various different names in different countries and the format varies a bit too. However the basic principle applies everywhere. People bring stuff they no longer want to sell to others who do want it and hopefully make some profit after taking into account their expenses for the day. It may be a yard sale in the USA or a Trash 'n' Treasure down under in Oz but the objective is the same.
We know that car boots are held in Thailand and there they call them just that. Evidence that they were started by British Ex-Pats in the first place no doubt! You'll find similar sales thriving in Malaysia, Singapore and Borneo too all under the same familiar name, presumably for the same reason.

Apparently regular Sunday boot sales take place in Gaza City though what they are called in Arabic I haven't been able to discover. Somebody out there will perhaps enlighten us all! Car boot sales in various guises really have become a sort of benign worldwide pandemic since the 70s fanning out from Europe and North America to cover most of Asia and the Middle East. Of course in many of those parts of the world the long standing culture of bargaining and haggling in markets would have provided even more fertile soil for the seeds of car booting to flourish than our more restrained northern and western societies.

If you make the journey to Japan, funded by your car booting profits of course, you'll find the fascinating sight of religious shrines being used as sites for the Japanese version of car boot sales. "Shrine Sales" are extremely popular all over Japan. Everywhere you go you find shrines to the numerous Shinto gods. Shrines usually have an area of land around them and those are the sites used for shrine sales. It may seem strange to us who grew up in the Judeo-Christian culture of Western Europe, but then many of our ways no doubt seem bizarre to the Japanese!

The idea of holding markets at the sites of Shinto shrines seems quite appropriate when you realise that Shinto has, among its many gods, seven "Lucky Gods", one of whom, Daikoku, is the God of Wealth and Retail Shops. It's these differences in culture and customs that make our world such a diverse and fascinating place along with the mix of differences and similarities that make its people so interesting.

That's just a glimpse of the international nature of car booting. There must be people out there who know far more about the activity in countries I've not even mentioned. Why not tell the rest of us all about them?

Friday, June 15. 2012

Today we in the UK tend to think of car boot sales as a particularly British phenomenon even though their popularity has spread all over Europe and Australia. The USA and Canada have similar events too although they call them by different names, Flea Markets, Swap Meets, Garage Sales and Driveway Sales for example. In fact the idea seems to have come to Britain from Canada.

The British car boot movement, I think its growth over the years has been of sufficient speed and magnitude to call it that, apparently owes its origin to a Catholic parish priest from Stockport, Cheshire, Father Harry Clarke. It seems Fr. Clarke had been on holiday in Canada in the early 1970s and there he had come across one of events. Being a priest it's likely that thoughts of fund-raising were never far from his mind and no doubt he saw the potential in something that was obviously bigger and gave more scope than a jumble sale!

Sometime after returning to the UK and his parish duties Fr. Harry apparently got a team together and organised what is believed to have been Britain's first ever car boot sale. Unless you know different of course! I haven't been able to establish the actual date of the sale or indeed the actual site. It seems logical to assume that it would have been in the parish served by Fr. Clarke somewhere in the Stockport area, probably in aid of parish charities. That's assuming he was still working there of course. Priests do get moved around from time to time. Someone out there may well know a great deal more about this seminal event than I do.

The earliest car boot type sale I've managed to come across is actually called Denio's Roseville Farmers market and Swap Meet. This is a more or less full time event which takes place most days in Roseville, Ontario, Canada. It may even be the one Fr Clarke came across in the 1970s as it was already in existence then. It was founded by Jim and Marilee Denio way back in 1947. If you look at its website and read the testimonials you can see that it's still very popular today.

Back here in the UK Fr Harry really started something, probably something far bigger than he could have imagined! He'd found something far more effective than the jumble sale in the Church Hall! By the 1980s car boot sales where springing up all over the country wherever there was a suitable space. In the years since then a support network has grown up so that now car boot enthusiasts can communicate with each other and generally keep I touch with developments with what's happening where and when throughout the year. You rarely come across a jumble sale now and it seems that in general they've quietly surrendered to the power of the car boot sale and allowed themselves to be absorbed. They always say, "If you can't beat them, join them!" It seems jumble sales have done just that.

The popularity of car boot sales under a variety of names has spread pretty well world wide now. You find them in France, in Spain and elsewhere in Europe and all over Australia. Car boot sales are a great way of raising money as well as being fun. Perhaps in these cash-strapped times some governments ought to give it a try!

Thursday, April 12. 2012

We're all in this together! But you know that already, after all the Prime Minister said so didn't he? That might be why, in these times of cut-backs, slow business and general belt-tightening for most of us one business sector is experiencing growth. I refer of course to our favourite weekend activity, Car Booting!

Can it really be a coincidence that as living costs rise and incomes shrink in real terms more and more people are realising that they have stuff in their lofts and garages or sheds that hasn't seen the light of day for years? Is it so surprising that it's now dawning on folk who would previously have never bothered to even think about it that someone else might actually have a use for this stuff and be prepared to pay money for it?

It cuts both ways of course. People still want to buy various items but they don't necessarily want to pay high prices for new when in many cases second-hand would do just as well if the price is right. Everyone loves a bargain, it's part of the human condition and always has been. That's not new. What is new is a heightened awareness of where to look for it.

Even people who have no interest in visiting or trading at car boot sales cannot fail to have noticed a gradual increase over recent years in the number of signs announcing such sales and indicating their whereabouts. In that way public awareness has been growing for some time. All that has happened more recently has been an upsurge in interest among people who have never previously given car-booting serious thought.

This is not speculation. The evidence is there for all to see. In March of this year, this very website showed an increase in traffic over last October's end of season figures of more than 50%! In fact since New Year over 550 new boot sales have been added or amended. Our search engine position has not changed dramatically. We are still number 1 for most terms. So the increase must mean that more people than ever are turning to car boot sales to convert unwanted goods into much needed cash.

When market traders, councils and others across all counties of the United Kingdom are publicly expressing concern about negative effects of the increased popularity of car boot sales you know the growth is real. Those concerns may be overlooking the benefits to local shops, pubs, cafes etc. of increased footfall when sales are held in town centre locations.

Whether the growth is all due to the nation's economic situation or not only time and more detailed investigation will tell. Britain's economic downturn may well not be the sole driving force behind the increased popularity of car boot sales but arguably it is a factor that cannot be ignored. All you car-boot devotees out there are undoubtedly doing your bit to help many people get through the hard times.

So, no real conclusions there then, just some musings about the growth in popularity of your favourite activity. Question is, what do you think?

Friday, August 19. 2011

We will be adding more profile features including the opportunity to publish profile information, take part in competitions and connect with other booters. Also watch out for more features on on Facebook page. Haven't linked with us yet? Click on the link at the bottom of this page and then click "Like" at the top of the Facebook page.

Even if you are not a car boot operator but simply a regular booter and fan of this great British weekend activity, we strongly urge you to register in our Members Area. Here you can subscribe to our monthly e-newsletter (which contains news, information, competitions, special offers negotiated for our Members with top quality UK suppliers), build your profile (list your favourite boots, where you sell, where you buy and boot sales you want to visit) and provide feedback to operators.